More people out of work in August

The numbers of both employed and unemployed people rose as a new wave of graduates entered the job market, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS, 主計處), which said the jobless rate would likely fall in September.

The number of unemployed people increased in August by 8,000 to 480,000, of whom 5,000 were first-time job seekers, while the number of employed people grew by 15,000, or 0.13 percent, to 11.29 million.

After seasonal adjustments, the unemployment rate for August was 3.95 percent, down 0.01 percentage points from July, according to the DGBAS.

The jobless rate between January and August averaged 3.93 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from the same period last year, marking the first increase for that period in seven years.